Financial services have changed drastically in the last thirty years. The sector has seen an ongoing drift from no regulation to voluntary regulation, and then to compulsory regulation governed by the Financial Conduct  Authority. Prior to 2008 – with a few exceptions including First Direct, NFU and Egg – financial services companies received poor reviews from customers. The 2008 crisis exacerbated this problem, with banks going from trusted institutions to devious fat cats, and the challenge of marketing in the financial sector has only grown as consumers become more savvy.

Marketing is an oxymoron. On one hand, the fundamentals are deceptively simple: product, price, place, people and those other Ps we love to quote. Under the bonnet, it’s a complex machine of constantly moving parts; one which looks slightly different depending on the make and model of the business or industry in question.

If you don’t have effective marketing, do you have a business? How will you ensure growth? Secure leads? Build brand awareness? How will you hold on to your existing customers, or bring new ones through the door? Without a full and joined-up marketing strategy, businesses struggle to make sales – and eventually, to exist altogether.

We’ve written before that it doesn’t matter which CRM is ‘best’, and that’s true to an extent - but there are still pros and cons to each. For guidance, we’ve drawn expertise from our network of marketing directors and partners to explore CRMs from the viewpoints of sales, marketing and IT - the three sectors most involved in implementing a CRM in the workplace. Our three experts will walk through the whole process of deciding what kind of CRM is suitable for your business - and then highlight what systems they chose and why.

In 1910, two teams of explorers - one from England, one from Norway - raced across Antarctica in the the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition; a competition to become the first to set foot on the South Pole. The Norwegian team, who spent a year planning their journey by surveying the inhospitable landscape in detail, won by more than a month. Led by Captain Robert Scott, the British team instead focused on raising cash for expensive scientific equipment and a gamut of transportation methods. Scott - along with all four of his British teammates - not only lost the race, but died on the gruelling journey home.